Category: Challenger Tour

The articles that comprise this week’s Reading List collectively paint a bleak picture of the Challenger and Futures tours’ financial landscapes, putting into sharp relief the plight of players trying to earn a living on tennis’s minor leagues.

We start with a fairly ominous overview of the situation as it currently stands, courtesy of our friends at the GWH Von Helvete Mens Tennis Blog (scroll down to the Steep Decline of the Challengers subheading). The article shows that — while total money on the ATP Tour has increased 21.44% from 1995 to 2013 — total money on the Challenger Tour has decreased by 30.27% in that same span.

“With little fanfare the ATP have increased the prizemoney of the lowest level Challengers from $35K+H (hospitality) to $40K+H. It’s good they have done this, but at best it’s tokenism. When over time the prizemoney on the Challenger tour has decreased significantly while expenses and costs have risen.”

Yeongwol Generosity

A point is made about court surface homogenization leading to players breaking through at later ages, thus “the younger players are spending more time playing Challenger level.” Not a very easy thing to do if a player is losing money every year, with costs increasing and Challenger purses dwindling.

Also, the blog echoes what I said here regarding an economical environment in which match-fixing becomes even more problematic:

“The lack of money at the lower level there are greater temptations to fix matches since the payments exceed the amount of prizemoney earned. It stands to reason raise the income at the lower level then the temptation is reduced.”

For corroboration of these numbers, check out Douglas Robson’s story for USA Todaylast year, which comes to similar conclusions (using something called the “Gini co-efficient”), even for players within the top 100:

“From 1990 to 2011, total ATP prize money went from $33.8 million to $80.1 million in 2011, a 137% increase. Over the same period, total Challenger prize money barely doubled to $10.2 million from $4.9 million and even has fallen from a high of $12.3 million in 2008.”

To get a personal glimpse into what this translates into for a player on tour, we need look no further than James McGee. In this article from this week’s Irish Daily Star, the Irish #1 — who reached a career-high of 220 in the world earlier this month — discusses his having to stay at shared rooms in hostels while on tour, because (in effect) there’s not enough prize money available at tournaments to support staying in the official tournament hotels without incurring a monetary loss.

Per my own analysis, McGee would’ve had to make the second round of every Challenger event he played just to make ends meet. We’re talking about finishing the year having made no money at all — essentially an unpaid internship on the pro tour — for having won as much as you’ve lost.

Prize Money Receipt for 2nd Round of Challenger

As a point of comparison: the 220th-best earner on golf’s PGA Tour, Scott Jamieson, cleared over $130K in 2013, which he made playing only 3 events. Had James McGee made the finals of all 17 Challengers he entered this year, he still would’ve pulled in just $106,635. How’s that for rewarding (potential) success?

Furthermore, as Tom Perotta noted in his piece from the Wall Street Journal earlier this summer, the minimum salary for a Major League Baseball player this year was $490,000. And the minimum for players in the National Basketball Association is $474,000. So who in their right mind is going to opt to play tennis, when the possible monetary rewards are so weighted against it?

“If I have to point out, however, an element that I find really bad for those who do my job, apart from the case is not entirely uncommon in the hotel where the tournament proves to be a hovel, I must refer the obvious costs: simply absurd.” (Google translation from its original Italian)

As with McGee, Vagnozzi outlines an average year’s expenses (both with and without a coach) and comes to similar conclusions. Basically, a player needs to make 30-35,000 EUR just to break even. And if they can’t, then playing for a club can offer some semblance of fiscal salvation.

Simone Vagnozzi

From Ireland to Italy (and I’m sure everywhere else) it remains the same: one has to have a phenomenal level of success (relative to other professions) to even break even as a tennis pro.

Since mine is a site which purports to celebrate the extraordinary athletes who compete through these extraordinary challenges, I find all of this to be quite alarming. One wonders: if current trends hold, will Challenger and Futures players become a professionally endangered species?

And if that’s the case, from where will tennis pros of the future emerge, if not from the Futures? At what tipping point of inequality, if any, will those who guide the game and determine its course off of the courts realize that this is current model is not sustainable and will ultimately endanger the product at every level?

The ATP has just elected a new president, Chris Kermode. As he was mostly a Futures-level player himself, there may be hope that he — along with the ATP’s player reps and governing councils — can steer the tour through factions and transactions to a place in which not just the very top players can earn a living.

It’s time for everyone’s favorite long-standing* weekly Challenger Tennis tradition: the Sunday Morning Reading List — the very best challenger-related articles of the week. As is usually the case, Sunday’s reading list is appearing on a day other than Sunday because, let’s face it, the NFL is on Sundays and I can’t be expected to write while football is being played** I can’t be locked into a temporal limitation when good writing does not cohere to such Sunday-shaped, calendaric*** specifications.

For instance, this amazingly entertaining pieceby Catherine Prendergast was just published today. (Confession: oftentimes I’m just waiting for a truly great piece of writing to inspire me to get off my lazy ass, walk to the computer, get back onto my lazy ass, and compile that week’s Reading List. AND THIS IS THAT.)

Titled “The Last American Challenger”, this deliciously detailed read recounts the author’s week at what is the end of a long and grinding road for a lot of players: the Champaign Challenger.

What we have going on in Champaign, then, is something like Custer’s Last Stand—except in this version there are no Indians so the Americans are left shooting at each other.

I laughed approximately 18 times while reading this article. Prendergast does not pull any punches; from Jack Sock’s “brat”-like behavior, to Tennys Sandgren’s Lynyrd Skynyrd “porn stache”, it’s all here in glorious word pictures and not-quite-as-glorious picture pictures (although you seriously haven’t lived until you’ve seen the pointillist rendering of coach and tourney protagonist Billy Heiser).

“S-A-N-D-G, R-E-N. – NIGHT!”

Citing David Foster Wallace’s legendary tennis writing, this article dips into a vein of DFW-esque inspiration, which is the highest (and most deserved) compliment I can give it.

Speaking of Sandgren, this write-up from the UT Daily Beaconprovides a nice summation of the Knoxville Challenger, from a University of Tennessee POV. In the feature, Knoxville champ Tim Smyczek says, “Tennys is playing really well, and I think he is going to have a good Champaign.” And boy, did Sandgren ever prove him right.

Had enough of Tennys? Of course you haven’t! Which is why you should also read Collette Lewis’s account of the success he and other college players had on the challenger tour last week, as well as the splashes juniors like Gianluigi Quinzi, Borna Coric, Christian Garin, Andrey Rublev and Ernesto Escobedo made at the Challenger and Futures levels.

On the subject of Futures, Irish #4 Daniel Glancy has been blogging about his experiences as he tours the late-season European Futures circuit. In the latest edition, he writes of the fiscal and physical challenges he faced at the Cyprus F1 event. As ever, the best glimpses you can get into life on tour are from the players themselves.

Lastly, if you’re already over this season (though there’s still three Challengers and many Futures events happening this week, I’m obligated to point out parenthetically!) and can’t wait for 2014 and the possibilities presented for your Challfaves, look no further than Foot Soldiers of Tennis’s regularly updated series detailing the race to get into the Australian Open main draw.

That’s all for this week. Be sure to check back next (day I decide is) Sunday!

Why yes, I do know it’s Wednesday. But on Sunday only one of these articles had been published, which would’ve made the Reading List more of a Reading Single Item. So, like the WTF-delayed W.A.T.C.H. list, this article is merely content delayed. (And I had to make it a “Sunday” list to keep the cherished tradition* alive for the readers who love it so.) Besides, Wednesday is Sundae at Carvel.

I’ve long been one decrying the harsh economic realities for those on the Challenger/Futures circuit, and this article brings into sharp relief how tennis can be more of a fiscal challenge than a physical one. This quote from Patrick McEnroe is the heart of it:

And if players are not competing on the ATP tour regularly, the math for staying in the game makes less sense. Patrick McEnroe, General Manager of Player Development at the United States Tennis Association, said the possibility of talented youngsters eschewing tennis for more lucrative sports “is what keeps me up at night. If you have a 7 year old, it’s much easier to sign him up for basketball than tennis. The challenge with tennis, is that once they’re exposed, it takes a lot of time and organization to make players significantly better.”

It’s what keeps me up at night too, PMac. It’s fairly horrifying to know that these players whom I regularly watch, these guys who are so damn talented, might have to give up the game simply because, that particular year, they weren’t making ends meet. With the average age of the Top 100 escalating to around 27-years-old, this is kind of akin to a player having to submit to a years-long unpaid internship, as they struggle with the grind of everything else on tour. Maybe next year is the year they would’ve broke through, but they have to quit this year because they can’t make ends meet.

The next articles are a bit more upbeat, thankfully. This business insider article continues with the monetary theme but with a brighter fiscal forecast. It’s, I dunno, comforting (?) to know that after some of these players quit because they can’t make money, maybe they’ll make lots of money after they quit. It’s reverse incentivising. Or something.

Maybe it’s just due to my poor memory, but what I’ve found is that when players on the lower circuits retire, there’s no announcement, no fanfare at all. And sometimes it takes weeks or months before I’m looking at a draw and think, “Hey, whatever happened to…” [insert player name]. I’m happy to find some of them folk in the confines of this Business Insider piece.

I see you, Barry King!

Foot Soldiers of Tennis has weighed in with its annual look at which players have successfully qualified for the most ATP World Tour events this year, a.k.a. the Kings of Qualifying. So click the link and find out who is the biggest KOQ.

The East Central Illinois News Gazette offers a well-written and -researched look at Rajeev Ramreturning to the Champaign Challenger at the place where he was part of the legendary 2003 NCAA-champion 32-0 Illini team of 2003. It also hits on other members of the team, past and present.

Lastly — and speaking of former college stars — this week’s Challenger Tour Finals participant and 2009 ITA Player of the Year, Oleksandr Nedovyesov is the focus of Josh Meiseles’s excellent article for the ATP World Tour website, describing the decision-making parameters inherent in a player’s choice to either turn pro or play for a top U.S. school.

The 26-year-old Ukrainian has been on W.A.T.C.H. Lists aplenty as he’s gobbled up titles and soared to a spot in the Top 100.

That’s all for now. Tune in whenever the next day is that I decide is Sunday!

I was feeling especially industrious today, so I brought back a column of info that I used to have in WATCH Lists of yore: the “Why” column, which details what exactly a player did to achieve their career high this week. You lucky devils. So let’s do it:

Player

NATIONALITY

Age

New High

Why

Pablo Carreno-Busta

ESP

22

65

Paris QR2

Tim Smyczek

USA

25

82

others lost points

Julian Reister

GER

27

85

Seoul F

Oleksandr Nedovyesov

UKR

26

95

Eckental R2

Bradley Klahn

USA

23

118

Traralgon F

Dominic Thiem

AUT

20

122

Casablanca W

James Duckworth

AUS

21

132

Traralgon SF

Facundo Arguello

ARG

21

135

Montevideo R2

Guido Andreozzi

ARG

22

143

Montevideo R2

Pierre Hugues-Herbert

FRA

22

160

Paris R2

Gerald Melzer

AUT

23

179

Casablanca SF

Norbert Gombos

SVK

23

192

Geneva QF

Damir Dzumhur

BIH

21

197

others lost points

Tim Puetz

GER

25

207

Eckental SF

Jordi Samper-Montana

ESP

23

211

others lost points

Mohamed Safwat

EGY

23

214

Casablanca QF

Filip Peliwo

CAN

19

245

Charlottesville R2

Valery Rudnev

RUS

25

252

Seoul R2

Thiago Monteiro

BRA

19

254

Montevideo R2

Hiroki Kondo

JPN

30

275

Seoul R2

Tak Khunn Wang

FRA

22

293

Spain F36 W

Today we welcome to the fold a new* WATCH Lister, Mr. Bradley Klahn. In contrast to recent List regulars like Dominic Thiem, Gerald Melzer, and Tim Smyczek — all of whom have charted career highs in six of the last nine weeks — the Stanford grad’s been drifting around the ATP rankings table of late; he’s been within 11 spots of his previous personal best (#123) since winning the Aptos Challenger in early August, before finally breaking through Down Under.

The 23-year-old was one of a very few Americans who sought his points outside of the States this week, and the move paid off for him as he made it to the finals of the Traralgon Challenger in Australia, going down to India’s Yuki Bhambri in a ridiculously close and rain delayed affair 7-6(13) 3-6 4-6. (For more on that match, check out the superb coverage provided by our friends at Aceland Tennis.)

During his years at Stanford, Klahn was a three-time All-American in both singles and doubles and was the 2009-10 NCAA Singles champ. This is his first full year on the pro tour, and he’s the latest of many former U.S. college players to appear on the W.A.T.C.H. List. The upcoming week finds him at the Yeongwol Challenger, as the fourth seed in a stronger field.

Moving right along, Pierre-Hugues Herbert has been on the List five times in the past nine weeks, but it’s how he did it that bears noting this time around. The 22-year-old Frenchman got a WC in qualifying at the ATP 1000 in Paris (Bercy), and knocked off Horacio Zeballos and Kenny de Schepper to qualify (coming back from a set and a break down and saving match point vs. the former).

But he didn’t stop there. In the main draw, P2H maintained his focus while Benoit Paire managed to implode spectacularly on the other side of the net (as is his fashion).

Herbert Signs Your Computer Monitor After His Win Vs. Paire

And in the next round he was perilously close to taking the first set from some mug named Novak Djokovic. Though he didn’t win the match, he became a cause celebre in Paris for the remainder of the week, playing dubs with the Schepper and making TV appearances all over town.

As Tennis East Coast reported, players at the Charlottesville Challenger cheered Herbert on, watching the lanky lad on Tennis Channel in the players lounge, thrilled to be watching one of their own making a splash at such an elite level. You can practically see the thought bubbles above their heads when you picture it, right? It reads: “If he can do it, why can’t I?”

And indeed, a few of those very players are sure to appear on these W.A.T.C.H. List pages one of these days. Stay tuned.

Since there are seven challenger tourneys happening this week, there was bound to be some excellent written work in and around these events. And just in case you missed my tweets about them this week, herein in lies the very best of those.

If you do nothing else with your life, at the very least you must read this article — it’s truly that remarkable. (Oh, and here’s the article in its original German, if you like to dabble in Deutsch.) And I’d love it if you’d report back to me and tell me your thoughts about it in the comments.

Next up is this introspective, thoughtful and well-written blog post from Jason Jung. The ATP #396 — who’s had a very decent year at 42/22, and just fed Mitchell Krueger a double-breadstick today in Yeongwol — nicely and concisely conveys all the joy, doubt, beauty and pain of the weekly challenger tennis grind.

The Jung And The Restless

Similarly, this stellar article from Tennis East Coast shows us you don’t even have to go halfway around the world to have a lonely challenger experience. There are similar challenges to be faced even in a player’s home country. I love the bit about Pierre-Hugues Herbert, as I felt the same way the pros did.

Charlottesville Chally – Photo by Tennis East Coast

And it truly is a shame that some of these events are so sparsely attended. I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: I can’t think of anywhere else you get as much bang for your entertainment buck as you can at a challenger or Futures tournament (and oftentimes you don’t even have to pay at all).

The players you see are bound to be just a few very small improvements away from the ATP Tour; oftentimes they’re just as talented, but don’t quite have their mental games or fitness focus where it needs to be. (And, because their mental games aren’t as strong, you get to see far more interesting meltdowns than you’d see at ATP level).

Plus you’re closer to the court than you’d normally be at an ATP tourney. If you’re a tennis fan, you truly owe it to yourself to check the calendar for tourneys in the area, and then go. The players, the tourneys and you yourself have everything to gain. Do it!

Lastly, Colette Lewis spotlights a few of the players you can see at such events in her October Aces column. Mitchell Frank was one of the players at the Charlottesville Challenger, Karen Khachanov made the quarterfinals of the Geneva Challenger this week, and Elias Ymer played the qualies at the Bratislava Challenger.